Sunday 7th May saw the Stratford upon Avon Soroptomists assisting at the 19th mile water station. It was a glorious day and we saw little casualties but much praise. In addition to water bottles, we handed out sweets and fruit which was greatly received by the runners, who were on top form given the heat – even those who had taken the opportunity to wear fancy dress outfits for the occasion! We gave huge cheers to the many female runners – who did a fantastic job this year – and had the delight of seeing a lady who was running her 100th marathon!   SI Stratford-upon-Avon & District will receive funds for doing this, from the organisers of the event, Rotary.  We will then donate this money to the Shakespeare Hospice, as part of our on-going support and community service.

Our 2016 Christmas meeting this year fell on the first of day of December.  In celebration, one of our members, whose 80th birthday fell on the day after our meeting, donated prosecco and, naturally, a few puddings had to be brought in to complement this!     Fyndon’s Nurseries, a well-known, local horticultural firm, generously donated poinsettias (as they have done for a good few years now) and money from the sale of these, plus from various sales tables which were set up, will go to our International President’s appeal on behalf of the Nepal earthquake.

  The service itself, the 17th consecutive, was held in the historic Guild Chapel of Stratford-upon-Avon.  It was a traditional service of nine lessons and carols, led by the Rev. Brian Mason and with readers drawn from all sections of the Springfield community, staff, volunteers, members and trustees and enhanced by the singing of Village Voices, from Warwick. The service was followed by refreshments and mince pies donated by Tesco and organised by the Stratford Soroptimists in the Town Hall, where there were also displays by local agencies offering support to those affected by mental illness, a sales table of Christmas novelties made by a member and unobtrusive live music played and sung by Dave Tandy, father of a staff member. When Maria Fennell, CEO of Springfield Mind gave her address, thanking those who had supported the event, she welcomed Ann Morrison, mayor of Leamington

  We had great pleasure in welcoming a new member, who was officially inducted at our November monthly meeting. For the 16th year the Club collected Christmas gifts and we packed 57 shoe boxes (to the hilt) for deprived children in Eastern Europe, the exact location varying each year.  However, instead of our very much looked forward to fish and chip dinner one of our members donated champagne, to commemorate a very special occasion: One of our group, having achieved her 90th birthday, was awarded honorary membership of the Club.  We would add that she is still a full-time participating member.  She joined Soroptimists at the beginning of 1975, so has been with us for over 41 years.  

“The pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, identify the wearer or promoter with the breast cancer brand and express moral support for women with breast cancer. Pink ribbons are most commonly seen during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month”  Wikipedia. Hence, our members, at our October meeting, during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, sported the colour pink and funds raised during the meeting were directed towards breast cancer charities. As a Club we were thrilled to welcome a total of six new members, who were officially inducted at our meeting.  We have not had so many ladies join at any one time before.  In addition, we warmly greeted a member from SI Anglesey, who has recently moved to the area. These ladies are valuable assets to our Club and, hopefully, in no time at

To further its support of our Federation’s chosen project for 2016-2019 and picking up on Federation’s suggestion of holding garden parties to raise funds on the Day of Action, 20th July, 2016, Stratford-upon-Avon & District Club held an evening party at the home of one of its members.  Members of other clubs in the region also attended.  Everyone contributed food and/or drink (sweets shown in pic), took various items for a bring and buy table and made direct monetary contributions to the fund. However, that was not all.  One of our club members is a keen bee-keeper and brought along a hive (minus bees), with equipment, and showed how honey is produced, some of which was on sale that evening.       https://sigbi.org/our-charities/meru-womens-garden-project-2016-2019/

We were delighted to welcome seven visitors to our June meeting, six of whom also came to the backpacking evening in May.  This time they came to hear Dr. Laura Davies speak on the tough environment she encountered when canvassing as a prospective parliamentary candidate in the 2015 parliamentary elections. (link to item in recent speakers).  Politics is not for the faint hearted but is a worthwhile objective for women who want to make a difference to a significant number of people. Next month a guest speaker will update us on the Women’s Refuge. If you are a woman who wants to make a difference, enjoys meeting people and relishes a challenge then you are welcome to visit us to see how Soroptimists work at local, national and international level to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide.  Contact us on sisoa@live.co.uk

  Please come again… …is our message to twelve visitors who came to our open evening in May.   All drawn by our advert in the local paper they came to see how their local Soroptimist group is working to contribute to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide.  It was our ‘backpack’ evening when we filled backpacks to send to an offshoot of the Scottish-based charity Mary’s Meals.  This charity started in Malawi in 2002 and now provides school dinners for more than 1.1million children in twelve countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and South America.  Providing a meal is an incentive to parents to send children to school and the back packs contain items needed by the children to be accepted into a school.   www.marysmeals.org.uk       If you are a woman who wants to make a

  April 2016 Five members of the club recently travelled to the Netherlands to visit our link club of SI Hilversum. We also met with six ladies from SI Ancona, Italy, a joint link club.  Our pic shows SI Stratford-upon-Avon & District President Rose, centre, standing to the right of her Franca Panzini, our link with Ancona, and standing to Rose’s left, Henny Knap-Go, our link with Hilversum.   Of course no trip to The Netherlands would be complete without tulips so we all went to visit the famous gardens at Keukenhof.  We had picked the perfect time with most of the blooms in full colour. We also had a very informative afternoon at a Chinese Medicine clinic owned and run by one of their members, Shan Su. On Saturday evening we had a guided tour of the Pinetum, which contains a club house used

A few of us spent last Sunday, the 24th April, handing out water to runners in the Stratford-upon-Avon Marathon.  We were manning the Long Marston drinks station again, just short of the 20 mile mark, so runners were well into their 27 mile run.  We hoped they would all make it but we had a few doubts. Every year, and SI Stratford-upon-Avon & District have been doing this since about 2008, there has been at least one runner “down”.  This year proved no exception. One runner collapsed at our water station, no longer able to bear weight on his right leg, with a knee that was fast swelling up.  A marshal was quickly on the scene, we sat the runner down and, very importantly, kept him warm. One thing Soroptimists have learned from this event is to dress warmly, with layers.  After the initial setting